The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents US food companies, has just published a report highlighting achievements in environmental sustainability by its members. Ben Cooper spoke with GMA sustainability director Meghan Stasz about the initiatives and the potential for further progress.

In the first Sustainability Watch of 2012, Ben Cooper discusses Heinz's sustainability strategy with Brian Shuttleworth, the company's director of operational risk and sustainability, and looks at how Heinz's knack for creating catchy taglines is helping to communicate the sustainability message to consumers.

Nestle's plan to partner with the Fair Labor Association in investigating the use of child labour in its cocoa supply chain could raise the bar in terms of corporate accountability regarding this long-running problem. Ben Cooper reports.

Last month's Sustainability Watch featured comments by renowned food policy expert Professor Tim Lang casting doubt on the suitability of the supermarket distribution model for providing locally sourced food. In the second part of this Sustainability Watch, Ben Cooper discusses the local sourcing challenge with Bob Gordon, head of environment at the British Retail Consortium.

The news that Maltesers is to become a Fairtrade brand underlines both the continued growth in the ethical market and how this increasing consumer appeal has not been lost on marketers. Speaking with Ben Cooper, Mercedes Tallo of the Rainforest Alliance discusses the importance of partnering with big brands and argues that the huge growth in ethical certification reflects tangible improvements in supply chains rather than a desire on the part of brands to look good.

Partnerships between industry and non-industry stakeholders should in theory represent the gold standard in terms of providing meaningful solutions to complex problems. But they are not immune from criticism. Ben Cooper met with Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative, to discuss the challenges ahead and how ETI is evolving to meet them.

PepsiCo's UK and Irish arm has made slower progress in its bid to boost sales of healthier products than it might have hoped. Ben Cooper examines how the company has reported its performance against the 27 commitments announced last year and the reaction it has received.

The marketing of breakfast cereals to children has become a delicate issue for food manufacturers like Kellogg. As a result, responsible marketing commitments feature prominently in the company's sustainability strategy, as Kellogg chief sustainability officer Celeste Clark explains.

In spite of considerable public and political concern, not to mention vigorous campaigning, the GM industry has proved adept at deflecting criticism, steadfastly continuing to plough its own furrow. However, Ben Cooper writes, going forward the agricultural biotech sector may have to answer searching questions about what it has so far failed to deliver.

Netherlands-based food retail group Ahold has recently committed itself to a range of sustainability targets. Speaking with Ben Cooper for this month's Sustainability Watch, Ahold's executive vice president and chief corporate governance counsel, Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh, expands on the company's approach to sustainability and the need to balance ambition and pragmatism.

The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has just published research into environmental labelling which suggests a footprint-based omni-label for food is a long way off. Ben Cooper asks Dr Tom MacMillan, executive director of the Food Ethics Council and one of the report’s authors, where this leaves the debate over food eco labelling.

The launch of the WWF's Livewell Plate brings the relationship of sustainable food production and nutrition into sharp focus. The same issue was being discussed last week at a conference hosted by Dairy UK, the British dairy industry association.

Industry environmental strategies can be accused of greenwash, of lacking transparency and of having more to do with enhancing a lobbying position than genuine engagement. As the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) publishes its third sustainability report, Ben Cooper spoke with Andrew Kuyk, the FDF's director of sustainability, about the organisation's Five-fold Environmental Ambition sustainability strategy and the value of such industry platforms.

The launch last week of Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan sees the Anglo-Dutch food-to-deodorants group once more setting the pace on corporate sustainability. Ben Cooper spoke with Karen Hamilton, Unilever’s vice president for sustainability, about the new strategy and how its ambitious targets set the plan apart from corporate rhetoric.

This month saw the annual review for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and the half-year review of the FTSE4Good index. The fact that this may have passed largely unnoticed by many in the business world, let alone by a wider public, is not perhaps surprising. Both indexes suffer from a problem which those championing corporate social responsibility (CSR) know only too well, that of being viewed by the mainstream investment community as peripheral or at worst irrelevant.

Corporate sustainability is seen by sceptics as too often being 'more talk than action'. In this month’s Sustainability Watch, Ben Eavis, head of corporate responsibility at Sainsbury’s, spoke with Ben Cooper about how the various steering groups, reporting processes and stakeholder discussions at Sainsbury's facilitate action rather being an end in their own right.

If tackling environmental problems is about finding new solutions to make damaging production and consumption a thing of the past, linking sustainability with product development is a must. Jeff Hogue, vice president of corporate sustainability at Danisco, spoke with Ben Cooper about how the Danish ingredients specialist is making innovation a key pillar of its sustainability strategy.

Building links with all stakeholders is seen as a vital component in any corporate responsibility strategy but companies vary both in their readiness and their success in doing this. Megan Hellstedt, director of corporate responsibility at Delhaize Group, spoke with Ben Cooper about how its collaborative culture and devolved business model helps the Belgian-based retail group’s sustainability efforts.

Earlier this month, Dole Food Co. announced the creation of an office of corporate responsibility and sustainability “to build on its existing environmental initiatives at company-owned farms around the world”. Ben Cooper asked director of worldwide corporate social responsibility Sylvain Cuperlier why he feels Dole’s approach to corporate sustainability represents a good model and why the recent organisational changes have further strengthened the company in this area.

Being responsible for championing the sustainability strategy of one of the largest meat processors in the world may appear to many an unenviable task. But Dennis Treacy, recently named senior vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer at Smithfield Foods, relishes the challenge and believes the company has a good story to tell. He spoke with Ben Cooper about his appointment, the company’s achievements to date and future goals.

United Biscuits recently announced it was ahead of schedule on a number of key sustainability goals. Ben Cooper spoke with chief operating officer Jeff van der Eems about the company’s sustainability strategy and the reasons behind its progress.

As chairman of the CIAA’s Environment Committee, Pascal Gréverath is at the centre of the European food industry’s sustainability effort. He spoke with Ben Cooper about the newly-created European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table and what he sees as the main priorities for the CIAA’s sustainability brief.

Premier Foods plc, the UK's largest food group, has become the latest manufacturer to commit to sourcing palm oil more sustainably and sent a signal that CSR issues remain important to the company despite the challenge of doing business in a recession. In this month's Sustainability Watch interview, Ben Cooper spoke to Premier's CSR manager Ian Bowles about the Hovis maker's move on palm oil - and the company's moves on to cut waste, energy and water use.

In the first of a new series of interviews focusing on sustainability issues, Richard Doyle, president of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), spoke with Ben Cooper about the Global Dairy Agenda for Action and his hopes that the industry’s recently-launched sustainability platform will foster best practice in climate change mitigation - and facilitate engagement with policymakers and other stakeholders.